Where do we stand on Billy Corgan? //hivemind

[casecandy]

Another thing that should be noted is that he is (well, was) not only a great musician, but also a master of aesthetic.

You watch the videos for "Tonight, Tonight" and "Stand Inside Your Love," and they feel timeless, I think. Which is absurd because they're so pathetically tied to the time in which they came out. But they really have a definite aesthetic that works with the band and the music. Like... to get the look of "Tonight, Tonight" they used actual 1920s cameras. That stuff is fucking important. It does not go unappreciated. Like... you hold a copy of Mellon Collie in your hands and you know it's something. It just fucking looks like something.

Very similar to Kurt Cobain in that regard. Nirvana isn't just a band, it's a whole big mess of crap that includes a band, but also includes anatomy dolls with wings, puppy-dog eyes, smashed offset Fenders, naked babies in swimming pools, scarecrows, gender fluidity, Iron Maiden t-shirts, etc., etc.

[antennafarm]

once upon a time "that's the way life is" (or "black people are racist tooooo") was not a valid excuse to not try and make things better (or are we still raping).

but once upon a time this thread was about billy corgan so what do i know.

[Invisible Man]

It's no fun to argue if we can all agree that everyone's entitled to their own opinions on pieces, though.

+1

Nah, I get it. But...“the more a person concentrates on feeling genuinely, rather on the objective content of what is felt, the more subjectivity becomes an end in itself, the less expressive he can be" (Richard Sennett).

I know people are just fucking around, for the most part, but the politics of arguments (silly or not) are pretty interesting.

[repoman]

i applaud corgans decision to get shit on by snarky internet commentators
he has a real whiney voice i dont like smashing pumpings that much

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edit: im 44 minutes into this vid and corgan hasn't made his point yet largely because alex jones won't shut the fuck up

[bigchiefbc]

Re Billy: A bald sad man in a dress who never abandoned his dream of being a professional wrestler, and accidentally made some good music along the way, but doesn't remember how so now he just fakes it.

Re this thread: an enjoyable read. 9/10.

[snipelfritz]

Re Billy: A bald sad man in a dress who never abandoned his dream of being a professional wrestler, and accidentally made some good music along the way, but doesn't remember how so now he just fakes it.

Re this thread: an enjoyable read. 9/10.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfbYgt_cffU[/youtube]

[repoman]

the US dollar/economic system is going to have complete collapse on may 28th

hold on to your butts

buy iodine

[D.o.S.]

Do you guys think Corgan endorses selling your 401k for gold?

[lost in music]

Yes.

http://archive.alternativenation.net/billy-corgan-reportedly-had-gold-shipped-studio/

[repoman]

I calculated that 37 lbs of gold is only $783, 216. I thought it would be more than that.

China is moving to a gold backed yuan fyi.



do you own any bitcoin?

[rustywire]

[lost in music]

My other favorite Corgan story:

Surfer's Paradise is the jumping-off point for the Big Day Out tour, a sort of Australian Lollapalooza that Soundgarden will headline this year. In the lobby bar of one of the tallest hotels, Cornell and Thayil are settling back with a couple of beers when Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins wanders through, and decides to join them for a strawberry margarita. Corgan chatters about the pain of his life, the supposed incompetence of his band (everybody rolls their eyes), the lifesaving virtues of Jungian therapy, bands that suck. Cornell gets up to leave. Corgan tells Thayil how important Soundgarden used to be to him, and he baits him by saying that the Pumpkins sometimes do a cover of Soundgarden's "Outshined" that segues into a Depeche Mode song or something.

"I'm thinking of making my next album really new wave," Corgan says, "like '83-'84 new wave, not like Berlin. I spend all my time doing things that may be a bit tangential, but I think I'm going to go back to the core, the heart music. Echo and the Bunnymen."

This is standard stuff to anybody who has read even a single Billy Corgan profile, the basic curriculum of Pumpkins 101. But Thayil isn't buying. He's sore.

"Don't you see," Thayil says, "you're this incredibly talented guy. People like your music. You have a good band. You sell a lot of records. You don't need all this...stuff."

"What sign are you?" Corgan asks.

"What do you mean, what sign am I?" Thayil says. "What difference could that possibly make?"

"C'mon," wheedles Corgan, "when is your birthday?"

"All right, goddamn it: September 4th."

"Aha!" Corgan says. "A Virgo. You're argumentative."

"Damn right, I'm argumentative," Thayil says, and takes a long, angry pulll at his beer, "which you should know because I've been arguing with you for half an hour, not because of any sign."

"I'm a Pisces," Corgan replies. "We pick up on those things."

A minute later, Corgan, still probing, finally finds the key to Thayil's heart: "I hate how in magazine pictures, they always stick me somewhere in the back."

Thayil explodes: "What do you mean? You write all the songs, and you do all the interviews. You play the instruments on the album. You control the band to the extent that most people think of Smashing Pumpkins as the Billy Corgan Experience, and all you care about is some photograph?"

"But I hate it," Corgan says, "it means they don't think I'm the cute one."

"Ooh," Thayil says a little too loudly as Corgan walks away, "I'll bet he's going to call his therapist in Chicago, wake her up at four in the morning, and tell her about that big, mean bear who made fun of him."

The next day at the Big Day Out festival, Thayil is talking to Kim and Kelley Deal in the Breeders' dressing room when Corgan walks past wearing a long-sleeved Superman T-shirt like the one your four-year-old nephew probably owns.

"You hurt me deeply," Corgan says, touching the giant S on his chest and pouting. "You hurt me deeply in my heart." The Pumpkins go on to play the best set anybody has ever heard them play, their usual passiveness and precision overlaid with an unfamiliar scrim of anger that throws their music into brilliant relief.

http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/articles/spin_4-94.shtml

[GardenoftheDead]

Re B Corg: Douche who hasn't made good music since I was in kindergarten.

[repoman]

Alex Jones show/Infowars is owned by Time Warner. Billy Corgan is on Reprise records, Reprise is owned by Time Warner. Don't you think its completely bizarre theres all these washed up celebrities that are on labels or in movies/media owned by Time Warner that go on Alex Jones and shill his snake oil products and say what an amazing 'reporter' Alex Jones is?

[D.o.S.]